Race against time to save children

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: Doctors are fighting against time to save the lives of 17 children in urgent need of cord blood for transplants.
Unless a match is found, there is nothing much the doctors can do as the children’s health deteriorates.
The National Blood Centre wished it could help but the 1,000 units of cord blood available at the cord blood bank are too limited to enable a close match to be found for the children, some of whom are as young as a few months old.
And in one case when a match was found, the child, who was suffering from leukaemia, died before the transplant could be carried out.
National Blood Centre director Datuk Dr Yasmin Ayob said cord blood was used for bone marrow transplants for people with leukaemia and other types of cancers or serious blood disorders such as aplastic anaemia and Thalassaemia.
More than 45 disorders can be treated with stem cells from umbilical cord blood, which is human blood from the placenta, and umbilical cord that is rich in haematopoietic stem cells.
The cord blood, collected after the umbilical cord has been detached from the newborn, is utilised for transplantation.
Studies have shown that cord blood, which can be stored for up to 15 years, is less likely to contain certain infectious agents which can pose a risk to transplant recipients. Studies also suggest that cord blood may have a greater ability to generate new blood cells than bone marrow.
Ideally, the cord blood bank should have at least 5,000 units of cord blood to enable a good match to be found, said Dr Yasmin.
The current 1,000 units at the bank are valued at RM3 million. They are those which met the NetCord standards — the international standards for cord blood collection, processing, testing, banking, selection and release adopted worldwide.
The cord blood is from all races. Due to its limited availability, it is only given to children below 20kg who urgently need bone marrow transplants but are unable to find suitable donors. Despite the high cost of processing cord blood, no fee is charged.
"We select our donors very carefully from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital maternity ward. We have to get their written consent. We return the placentas to Muslims or upon request," Dr Yasmin said, adding that the centre’s staff kept close contact with the donor and the baby for at least six weeks to ensure that the baby was free from diseases.
"If the baby does not survive or suffers from any illness, the cord blood is immediately discarded," she said.
There are some 11,000 deliveries a month at the KLH’s maternity ward but only eight to 12 placentas are selected a day to be processed.
"Not all get through the stringent screening process. Every year, we manage to get only between 300 and 800 units of cord blood," she said, adding that the centre needed RM6 million annually to collect, screen and process at least 2,000 units.
Dr Yasmin said it was crucial to have cord blood stem cells stored as Malaysian families were becoming smaller.
"It is difficult to get matched sibling donors if there is only one or two children in the family. If a child does not have a suitable donor for a transplant, the next option is the cord blood bank."